What Is Beau Monde Seasoning? Meet The Cult Classic Spice Of Southern Kitchens
Many home cooks have known about this blend for at least 65 years.
As a social media editor, you never truly know what’s going to go “viral.” You have hunches that videos with striking hooks and mildly controversial topics will drive views and conversation. You post stories you know that your audience will be interested in, but despite your best efforts, the fish don’t always bite. The best kind of stories, though, are the total surprises—the headlines that garner so many clicks they make us editors scratch our heads and say, “Really? That one?” One of those came in the form of an article I wrote about an unexpected appetizer my husband’s family serves each year on Thanksgiving.
The surprising snack? A smoked salmon board, similar in presentation to the charcuterie boards your Instagram feed hasn’t been able to escape in five years. It’s pretty and easy to put together, and the only actual recipe portion of the dish is a simple mayo-based sauce.
What Is Beau Monde Seasoning?
Once this story began gaining traction with our newsletter crowd and even on Apple News, our social team decided to jump on it and have Senior Lifestyle Editor Ivy Odom make the recipe on video. I was surprised when Ivy, who graduated top of her class at culinary school and has worked in the Southern Living Test Kitchen for years, said she had never heard of one of the ingredients in the sauce recipe: Beau Monde seasoning, a product of Spice Islands. She wasn’t alone on the Southern Living food staff, either. Admittedly, I was only familiar with the spice blend because of this exact recipe. Once we posted Ivy’s video to Instagram and TikTok, most of the comments were about Beau Monde.
Why Beau Monde Is So Beloved
“My family has been using Beau Monde through multiple generations!” wrote one commenter on Instagram. “Love Beau Monde! Been using it for 40+ years,” wrote another on TikTok. Dozens and dozens of followers echoed similar sentiments about the beloved seasoning. The mysterious spice blend was revealing itself as a cult classic of Southern kitchens, so I needed to know more about it.
I caught up with Meredith Long, R&D Director of Spices & Flavor Solutions at B&G Foods, which owns Spice Islands, over email to discuss the sleeper hit that might be hiding in your spice cabinet.
“Beau Monde is one of the Spice Islands brand’s most beloved spice blends,” Long says. “While we aren’t sure exactly when it was introduced, Beau Monde was included in a Spice Islands recipe book in 1959, so we know it’s at least 65 years old!”
When I began looking into Beau Monde myself, I wondered if it was just a made-up name, but actually, Merriam-Webster defines Beau Monde as “the world of high society and fashion,” which makes me picture my little spice bottle attending Milan fashion week. Just me?
“For a seasoning blend that dates back to the 1950s or even earlier, it was probably considered ‘high society’ and ‘fashionable’ to be able to purchase and use a seasoning blend vs. blending your own,” Long says. Well that makes more sense than my theory.
How To Use Beau Monde
Similar to my husband’s grandmother’s application of the seasoning, many commenters mentioned using the blend in a vintage recipe called Beau Monde Dip, which Long describes as “a vegetable dip using cream cheese and cream and some additional herbs such as thyme and marjoram.” She adds that “dips are the most popular use of the seasoning, whether it’s dips using mayonnaise or sour cream as the base.” However, in the aforementioned 1959 cookbook, Beau Monde is used in recipes for Spanish rice, beef stew, hamburgers, and gumbo. “It was used as an all-purpose seasoning then and we still use it that way today,” Long says.
Is there a bottle of Beau Monde seasoning sitting in your pantry? What’s your favorite way to use it? I’ll be checking those comments, y’all!
